Bag for storing and dispensing granular, powdery or liquid products and production method thereof

ABSTRACT

The invention relates to a hermetically-sealed bag of the type which is used to transport and dispense granular, powdery or liquid products and which is made from sheet of paper, plastic material or plastic/metal material. The inventive bag is soldered longitudinally and transversely such that it can be incorporated into a cardboard parallelepiped container and is particularly suitable for use in a box comprising a dispensing system, such as a pour spout, which is made form the same piece of cardboard as the box. During the production and filling process, a flexible delivery tube is formed inside the bag at the upper edge thereof by means of two soldered joints or one double-width soldered joint with a central vertical cut, without the need for any additional parts. Said tube is affixed to the pour spout such that the user only has to open the end of the tube which is connected to the pour spout of the box in order to dispense the product. The invention also relates to a method of producing said dispensing tube-equipped bag and the pour spout-equipped box.

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

The invention described hereby refers to a pouch placed in a carton, for keeping and distributing seed-like, powder-like or liquid goods, and to the manufacturing procedure.

The carton is a folding carton made preferably from a blank of cardboard, folded along creasing lines and glued on its flaps' gluing areas so forming a prismatic rectangular carton provided with a pour spout. The hermetic pouch made of paper or plastic or plastic/metallic material is placed on the carton before it is folded. To open the carton and pour its contents, it is not necessary to cut the pouch's upper side as access is gained through the pour spout, and it is through the pour spout that the contents are served.

BACKGROUND ART

Several cartons with rectangular prismatic form, hermetic closure and water-proof interior for distributing seed-like, powder-like or liquid goods are already present on the market. In order to improve conservation of the products these are usually enclosed in hermetic pouches made of paper or plastic or plastic/metallic material. Then the carton's main role is to protect the pouch, to make it easier to handle thanks to the carton's rigidity and to offer its faces with a surface suitable for illustrating with the product's name, brand, features, attractive pictures, etc. A sole pouch does not have these advantages, but it makes for better conservation of the contents as it offers an acceptable hermetic condition even after the first time it has been opened, if the consumer folds it carefully and fixes it with a clip.

Thus, seed-like and powder-like goods are usually marketed in pouches contained in cartons like those described above. However, the main disadvantage,—if one does not consider the difficulty of manufacturing them and filling them—, is for the consumer: The first time, he must open the carton top, and open or cut the pouch. Then, after serving he must close the pouch, folding the mouth carefully and fixing the closure for good conservation.

Other recipients are made of cardboard-plastic-metal laminated complexes and have a sealed or glued spout made of a different material, that helps to pour the content, and which can be closed again with a plug or something similar. This kind of cartons are currently used only for liquids.

However, cartons which contain pouches with a pouring system consisting of a pour spout built in the carton and in the pouch, easy to open and use and easy to close without any special operations and without any clips or suchlike are unknown on the market. A further advantage would be that it can be used for both seed-like and powder-like goods, but also for liquids. It would also be convenient for it to be manufactured with just a blank and a pouch without gluing or sealing any pre-formed parts such as spouts or plugs.

The invention described in this memoir refers to a pouch, including the option of the “pouch without a bottom”, that is, when the bottom of the pouch is only sealed within the filling machine immediately before the pouch is filled, to form a prismatic rectangular carton with the above mentioned advantages.

Though this pouch could be adapted to any carton similar to the existing ones, it is especially suitable for being placed in a carton with a distributing system such as a pour spout, made from the same blank the carton is made from. Precisely, the preferred embodiment described later for the pouch and its manufacturing procedure is that which is suitable for its production with a carton provided with a pour spout as described in patent application PCT ES/0000200190, “PROCEDIMIENTO DE FABRICACION Y CAJA PERFECCIONADA CON PICO VERTEDOR”.

This application describes a manufacturing process and a folding carton made from a blank, preferably of cardboard, folded along some creasing lines and glued on some flap areas, producing a prismatic rectangular box or carton provided with a pour spout. The innovation of this invention is founded on the fact that the pour spout is constructed in the blank's waste area next to an upper short flap, instead of adding a supplementary side to obtain it, and that the constructing process may be carried out in high speed, automatic, folder-gluer machines.

The pouch—which is the object of this invention, is constructed in such a way that takes advantage of this spout, using it as a seal before the first opening, as a pour spout, and as a hermetic closing device until the next opening.

Furthermore, the manufacturing process is described with the pour spout box, being glued to it at some points.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The present invention refers to a pouch to be placed inside a prismatic rectangular carton, specially for cartons provided with a distributing system such as a pour spout, made from the same blank that the carton is made from (as described in patent application PCT ES/0000200190 for instance).

The invention described in that application is a manufacturing procedure and a box provided with a pour spout, consisting in a way to produce a folding carton made from a blank, preferably of cardboard, folded along some creasing lines, and glued on some gluing areas, thus creating a prismatic rectangular carton provided with a pour spout. This carton offers some advantages if we compare it to other cartons used to transport and distribute goods.

Some cartons have no system for distributing their contents.

Some have a closing and pouring system consisting of a spout made either from the same cardboard that the carton is made from, or of a plastic or metallic material which is glued to the carton during the manufacturing process.

But no carton is known to be provided with a pouring system constructed from a blank with all the advantages derived from its being easily transported, stored and erected for filling, as the one described in the aforementioned PCT application, which describes the pour spout box and the system applied to manufacture it from a single cardboard blank.

The current advantages offered by this carton are improved now by adding a hermetic pouch made of either paper, or plastic or plastic-metallic material (for instance the ones used for breakfast cereals) to the inside. The innovative aspect of this pouch is that, instead of opening the upper side of the carton to reach the hermetic pouch, access to the pouch is gained through the pour spout, and the pouch is not loose inside the carton, but is stuck to it at a series of glue points.

This pouch could also be placed inside a carton without a pour spout, with just a window without side-walls for example, or inside a carton provided with a pouring system made by adding an inserted part, but there would be fewer advantages. Most pour spouts—those constructed on supplementary sides—are obtained when the blank is folded, whereas the one described here is already formed while the blank is still flat. That is the reason why the pouch can be glued to the carton described in the aforementioned PCT, while in other cases this would not be possible.

To produce this pouch, when the cardboard blank is placed on the folder-gluer machine, after the pour spout constructing operations have been performed and before the longitudinal creasing lines are folded, we glue some areas and we stick the folded pouch obtained from a folded pouch roll on them. At this stage we obtain a folded carton containing a folded pouch, which, thanks to the gluing points, accompanies the carton's movements, so that when the carton is erected and obtains its rectangular prismatic shape the pouch inside will also take on approximately the same shape.

After filling the pouch with its contents, besides the upper horizontal sealing line, a double welding line must be sealed, which can be straight, wavy or V-shaped, the shape does not matter, and at least one vertical or inclined cut must be made, with the purpose of getting one of the pouch's upper corners,—precisely the one that has been stuck to the carton's pour spout—, to move independently of the pouch. The double sealing and the cut, whatever their shapes might be, will form a pour pipe glued to the carton's pour spout. Finally, the closing of the carton is completed.

Thus, when the end user opens the carton he finds a flexible sealed pour pipe (which he will have to cut) which overreaches the carton's pour spout's border. If he cuts it in such a way that the pipe's border still overreaches the border of the carton's spout, when the latter is closed back, it will trap the flexible pipe and so it will provide the remaining contents with an acceptable hermetic condition, even after the first opening and without any need for clips or suchlike.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

In order to better understand the object of the present invention, this memoir includes a practical example of it, with some drawings.

FIG. 1 shows a blank of a pour spout box as described in PCT ES/0000200190 (it refers to FIG. 1 of the aforementioned PCT).

FIG. 2 shows the evolution of FIG. 1 with the spout area already folded and glued (it refers to FIG. 4 of the aforementioned PCT).

FIG. 3 shows the box already erected with the pour spout opened and ready to serve the contents (it refers to FIG. 4 of the aforementioned PCT).

FIG. 4 shows FIG. 2 with the addition of the gluing areas where the pouch will be stuck.

FIG. 5 shows FIG. 4 with the addition of the pouch positioned on the right area to be glued to the blank.

FIG. 6 shows the pouch with the sealing lines and the cut that creates the pour pipe.

FIG. 7 shows the same pouch with its pour pipe separated from the main body, showing what it would look like when the carton's spout is pulled out.

The above mentioned figures show the following details: (marks 1 to 15 refer to FIGS. 1 to 3 of PCT ES/0000200190).

1. Side faces folding line (3).

2. Window that will form the pour spout's front side.

3. Pour spout's side walls

4. Folding line.

5. Side wall's (3) lid to be glued on the window (2)

6. Side wall's (3) lid to be glued on the window (2)

7. Lid to be glued.

8. Lid to be glued.

9. Carton's side wall

10. Carton's front wall

11. Half cut line.

12. Bottom flaps.

13. Longitudinal gluing flap.

14. Half cut finger-lid.

15. Upper flaps.

(Marks 20 to 30 refer to FIGS. 3 to 6)

20. Pouch.

21. Glue area corresponding to the pour pipe.

21 a. Pouch's area where pour pipe is formed

22. Lower gluing area of the carton's front wall.

22 a. Pouch's area corresponding to carton's area 22

23. Gluing areas of the carton's right wall.

24. Gluing areas of the carton's left wall

24 a. Pouch area corresponding to carton area 24.

26. Sealing lines that form the pouch.

27. Cut line to form the pour pipe (30).

28. Sealing line after pouch is filled.

28 a,b. Sealing lines to form the pour pipe (30).

29. Pipe's sealing line to be cut when opening.

30. Pour pipe.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

The following lines describe an example of a preferred embodiment which must be interpreted in its widest sense and not be understood in a limited sense.

As stated earlier, the present invention refers to a pouch to be integrated inside cartons, and particularly, inside cartons provided with a distributing system, such as a pour spout, made from the same blank the carton is made from (for instance as the carton described in the patent application PCT ES/0000200190).

This carton is constructed from a sole blank, like that shown in FIG. 1, which corresponds to FIG. 1 of the aforementioned PCT. This blank has several creasing lines which constitute the carton's folding lines, its four sides (9,10), its bottom flaps (12), and its top flaps(15). In this blank, one of the upper short flaps is prolonged by an area which will form the pour spout, which contains,—as shown in the figures—, a couple of lids (5-7, 6-8), which end in an “ear-shaped” area (3), with a folding line (1) separating lids (5, 6) and ears (3). One of the carton's side panels (9) contains a window which will coincide with the area contained between the lids' (5, 6) borders, after having been folded along the folding line (4).

The manufacturing procedure goes on to fold the spout forming shape along the folding line (4), sticking the lids (7, 8) to the side panel (9) above the window and sticking the lids (5, 6) well fitted into the window (2). The result is as shown in FIG. 2 where the striped areas represent stuck areas. Besides, while dye cutting the blank, a finger-lid (14) has been half cut on the window's (2) upper border, so that it might be torn by pushing. This finger-lid allows the end user to pull out the pour spout's window wall (2), thus causing the half cut lines (11) to be torn, and the pour spout to be opened and formed, as shown in FIG. 3 (corresponding to the FIG. 4 of the aforementioned PCT application). Further details of the carton's manufacturing procedure are available in the aforementioned PCT application.

The improvement offered by this invention is a pouch which is provided with a pour pipe formed just by cutting and sealing, without any insertions, and whose better application is to be produced together with the above described pour spout carton, thus obtaining the aforementioned advantages of better protection for the contents, easy opening and distributing, gentle and reasonably hermetic closing after first opening, easy and cheap production and good recycling properties.

The first step to produce these cartons is done on the folder-gluer machine. After the machine has performed the folding and gluing operations that form the carton's pour spout (state shown in FIG. 2), glue is laid on some areas (21, 22, 23, 24) as shown in FIG. 4.

Then a pouch is positioned in the way shown in FIG. 4, and the blank runs further being folded and glued longitudinally.

To perform both operations, a window-patcher unit must be inserted within a modular folder-gluer. The window-patcher unit lays the glue on the blank using cliches or guns, and then lays the pouch on the right position, obtaining it from a pouch roll which is cut in a cutting cylinder and fixed onto it by suction.

Thus we obtain a folded carton with a folded pouch stuck inside, which will accompany the carton's movements, and thus when the folded carton is erected and becomes a rectangular prism, the pouch glued inside will also become approximately a rectangular prism.

The pouch's filling and closing procedure is also innovative. At this stage the pouch is made from a leaf of paper or plastic or metallic-plastic material (FIG. 6) with its right border being a fold, its left and bottom borders being sealed and the upper border being open. Methods known in the state of the art suggest filling the pouch and closing it by means of a horizontal welding line that goes from one corner to the other so that the consumer has to cut that upper sealing to access the contents.

In this pouch and this invention this is different. Once the pouch is glued to the carton in areas (21 a, 22 a, 24 a in FIG. 6) and its corresponding areas on the opposite side of the pouch, and once it has followed the carton's opening movement becoming itself a rectangular prism, the pouch is filled with whatever goods it might contain. But besides the horizontal sealing of the upper border (28), a double sealing line (28 a, 28 b) and a cut (27) are made vertically. The sealing lines (26) might have been previously made by the pouch manufacturer, and the 28, 28 a, 28 b and 29 are made after the pouch has been filled, in order to close it. Among these, the horizontals (28 and 29) correspond to the usual sealing closure, and the double vertical sealing (28 a, 28 b) and the vertical cut in the middle of them (27) aim to create a flexible pour pipe (30) which is stuck to the inside of the pour spout, and will thus accompany it when it is pulled out as shown in FIG. 7. To obtain this result, the gluing area 21 a must be positioned within the flexible pour pipe and must correspond to the carton's gluing area 21, which will extend itself along the front side and the side walls or “ears” of the pour spout.

It is recommended that the pouch's perimeter should slightly exceed the container carton, though this excess might be not apparent, by using pouches provided with bellow-like longitudinal folds, and thus when the flexible pipe follows the pour spout's movement when it is pulled out, tensions between glued areas will be avoided.

Among the existing pouch sealing machines, none performs the vertical sealing and cutting necessary to produce this invention, as this has not been needed so far, but no special difficulties are foreseen in adapting existing machines to perform these new operations.

When the end user opens the carton by pulling out the window (2) aided by the finger-lid (14), he finds a sealed flexible pipe (30) that overreaches the spout's border. He will have to cut its sealed border (29) to pour the pouch's contents. If, even after the cut, the pipe's border overreaches the spout's border, he will trap the flexible pipe when he closes back the pour spout, and thus the contents will benefit from an acceptable insulation even after the first opening and without needing clips or suchlike.

Finally it must be remarked once again that this pouch could also be placed on a carton without a pour spout, provided just with a pour window with no side walls, or provided with other pouring systems.

The preceding explanations illustrate an example of a making mode, but this does not mean that the protection provided by the patent does not cover any other product or any other manufacturing mode, which essentially follows the spirit of the invention. 

1. Hermetic pouch like those used to transport and distribute seed-like, powder-like or liquid goods, made from a leaf either of paper or plastic or plastic-metallic material, folded and sealed on its side and bottom, characterized by the fact that it has a flexible pour pipe formed in one of its upper corners, which is obtained by adding to the usual transversal closing sealing line, two vertical sealing lines, —or a vertical double width sealing line—, and a vertical cut in the middle, without the need to add any pieces to the original leaf, so that all the consumer has to do is open the pipe's seal to pour the contents.
 2. Hermetic pouch, like those used to transport and distribute seed-like, powder-like or liquid goods, as described in claim no. 1, characterized by the fact that it is stuck to a rectangular prismatic carton by some gluing points on the carton, and that it is positioned in such a way that the pouch's pour pipe is stuck to an opening area of the carton.
 3. Hermatic pouch, like those used to transport and distribute seed-like, powder-like or liquid goods, as described in claim no. 1, characterized by the fact that it is stuck to a carton provided with a pour spout used to open the carton and distribute the contents, —pouch and carton are stuck by the glue laid on some areas of the carton, and characterized by the way pouch and carton are stuck, as the pouch's pour pipe area is glued to the carton's pour spout area, thus when the carton is opened by pulling out the pour spout to the distributing position, the pouch's pour pipe accompanies the carton's pour spout and rests on it.
 4. Hermatic pouch like those used to transport and distribute seed-like, powder-like or liquid goods, as described in claim no. 2, characterized by the fact that the pour-pipe is long enough to be trapped by either the flap, or the pour spout, or whatever the opening and closing device, when they are closed again after the first opening, making the use of external parts for the closure unnecessary.
 5. Procedure to produce pouches similar to those described in any of the preceding claims, in a machine with a conditioning module characterized by the fact that the module first erects the carton, then folds down the upper flaps, then displays the pouch's mouth, then fills the pouch with the contents, and seals it with a transversal welding line all along the upper border, and also characterized by the fact that, besides the aforementioned transversal sealing, a double vertical sealing and a vertical cut in the middle of it are applied to the pouch, so that a flexible pour pipe is formed in the pouch.
 6. Procedure to produce pouches following the preceding claims, characterized by the fact that a pouch is placed inside a rectangular prismatic carton, sticking the pouch to the carton before the carton is folded when it is still a blank, by means of a module, similar to the window-patcher machines, which lays glue by means of cliches or guns on the blanks' gluing areas and later lays the pouch on the blank, so that the area where the pour pipe is to be formed falls onto the carton's pour spout area, and then goes on to fold and glue the carton longitudinally, and thus, when the carton is erected, the pouch inside adopts approximately the same rectangular prismatic shape that the carton does, and it is then filled and sealed.
 7. Procedure to produce pouches following the preceding claims, characterized by the fact that a pouch is placed inside a carton provided with a distributing system such as a pour spout made from the same blank the carton is made from, and by the fact that the pouch is glued in such a way that a gluing area is placed on the front side and on the side walls of the pour spout which is stuck to the area of the pouch where the pour tube is to be formed, and this is followed by the same procedure of erecting, filling as sealing, as before.
 8. Hermatic pouch, like those used to transport and distribute seed-like, powder-like or liquid goods, as described in claim no. 2, characterized by the fact that it is stuck to a carton provided with a pour spout used to open the carton and distribute the contents,—pouch and carton are stuck by the glue laid on some areas of the carton, and characterized by the way pouch and carton are stuck, as the pouch's pour pipe area is glued to the carton's pour spout area, thus when the carton is opened by pulling out the pour spout to the distributing position, the pouch's pour pipe accompanies the carton's pour spout and rests on it.
 9. Hermatic pouch like those used to transport and distribute seed-like, powder-like or liquid goods, as described in claim no.3, characterized by the fact that the pour-pipe is long enough to be trapped by either the flap, or the pour spout, or whatever the opening and closing device, when they are closed again after the first opening, making the use of external parts for the closure unnecessary. 